SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 2020 (IPS) – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss’ desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.
Bolsonaro had fired his previous health minister, displeased by Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s public remarks on the need for lockdowns and physical distancing.
Mandetta’s firing was met with outrage across Brazil. Locked-down citizens banged pots and pans, shouting “Bolsonaro Murder”.
In his final briefing as minister, Mandetta urged staff to challenge “denialism” and mount an “unyielding defence of life and science”. “Don’t be afraid”, he said, “Science is light … and it is through science that we will find a way out of this.”
Covid-19 apocalypse
Meanwhile, Brazil has begun digging large graveyards ahead of an anticipated peak of the national Covid-19 epidemic. In Sao Paulo’s Vila Formosa cemetery, the largest in Latin America, about 20 excavators are digging graves around the clock.
Palancar Reef – Cozumel. Photo by Jett Britnell / Coral Reef Image Bank
21 April 2020 (UN Environment)* — Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many across the word are figuring out how to move forward with day-to-day activities as the plans to addresses the health, socio-economic and recovery issues take shape.
But nature, now more than ever, needs us to pay attention to its warning signals and to take care of it so it can take care of us.
Women in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as there are several active volcanoes on the island. But global women’s rights organisations are collaborating with regional alliances in supporting local women.
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 20 2020 (IPS)* – Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society’s structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities. […] Epidemics are a mirror, they show who we really are: Our ethics, beliefs, and socio-economic relationships.
Frank Snowden 1
After contagion, the symptoms of the Ebola Virus become evident between two days and three weeks – vomiting, diarrhoea and rash as victims begin to bleed both internally and externally, an average of 50 percent of the afflicted will die.
The disease was first identified in 1976. The largest outbreak to date was in West Africa, between December 2013 and January 2016, with 11,323 deaths.2
– In a moment when the way to show we care is by keeping our distance as much as possible, fighting effectively for a safe and just society and planet can feel impossible.
10 April 2020 (World Meteorological Organization-WMO)* — Depletion of the ozone layer, the shield that protects life on Earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet radiation, is at an unprecedented level over large parts of the Arctic this spring . This phenomenon is caused by the continuing presence of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere and a very cold winter in the stratosphere (the layer of the atmosphere between around 10 km and round 50 km altitude).
The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action. The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities — of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary.
A young child participates in a plant workshop organized by UNDP Peru and FAO in Ayacucho, Peru. Photo: UNDP Peru.
By United Nations* — Mother Earth is clearly urging a call to action. Nature is suffering. Australian fires, heat records and the worst locust invasion in Kenya. Now we face COVID -19, a worldwide health pandemic link to the health of our ecosystem.*
(United Nations)* — The UN General Assembly designated 22 April as International Mother Earth Day through a resolution adopted in 2009, joining civic groups that celebrated Earth Day earlier..
Roughly 20,000 elephants are killed each year in Africa. UNEP, together with other United Nations agencies and institutions works to enforce laws to stop the illegal trade in wildlife.
In fact, the original roots go back to 1970 with the first American protests against air pollution due to amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles and irresponsible industries.
Environmental protection was not a priority of the political agenda.
(Greenpeace International)* — When I think of the forest, I remember playing in it. We would build huts of sticks and moss, and vehicles from bamboo trees. Getting lost in the forest was a real adventure. We used to turn the forest into a navigation game. We could get a sense of orientation without a compass or a GPS.
Qatari authorities rounded up and expelled dozens of migrant workers after telling them they were being taken to be tested for COVID-19, Amnesty International has learned.
AFP via Getty Images
The organization interviewed 20 men from Nepal who were apprehended by Qatari police, alongside hundreds of others, in March.
The police told most of the men that they were going to be tested for COVID-19 and would be returned to their accommodation afterwards. Instead, they were taken to detention centres and held in appalling conditions for several days, before being sent to Nepal.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 